Bobby frowns. “Different in what way?”
“Well, you probably wouldn’t be in something like Velvet House. You’d probably be working for Google.”
He gives me a small smile. “You don’t need to feel sorry for me, JJ.”
“But if you’d never lost your Dad, you wouldn’t have stayed in New York, right?”
“Maybe not, but I take responsibility for staying.”
“But—”
“There aren’t any ‘buts.’ I wanted in on the deal with Orchard. I agreed we shouldn’t sell to Parker. And after my father died, I went to Italy with Eli and Doc and Adri and I worked for Eli’s Nonno. I did that willingly.”
I stare at him. “You guys went to Italy?”
“Naples. Right after Parker did what he did. It was the safest place we could think to go.” Bobby has a faraway look on his face. I imagine the four of them landing in Italy as teenagers. Handsome and totally out of their depth.
“Were you safe in Naples?” I ask.
“Yeah. Eli’s Nonno had ties to the Camorra. Even Parker wasn’t stupid enough to fuck with them.”
I don’t know what the Camorra is, but I can guess. “Could you speak Italian?”
“Not a word. That was the first thing we did. Or I did, anyway. Learn the language.”
“So you speak Italian, too?”
“Sì, faccio una ragazza sexy.” Yes I do, sexy girl.
I flush and for a second Bobby holds my gaze. Then he ducks his head, embarrassed by his own sleazy comment. I remember the night in Eli’s bed, how it felt to have Bobby behind me, spanking my ass as his cock slid between my thighs, rubbing me to orgasm. I stare at the grass. Bobby has so many sides to him. He’s wholesome and filthy; stern and silly. A million different things. I like all of them.
“What were the others doing while you were learning Italian?”
Bobby looks up, smile gone. “Drinking. Plotting.”
I almost ask what, but the answer is obvious. Revenge. The revenge that led to me being kidnapped. The revenge they will have to give up to keep me safe.
“Is everyone really mad about the contract?”
“I really don’t want to talk about this, JJ.”
“I know, but it feels better out here than in the car. Like nothing can really hurt us.”
“I guess.”
I study his handsome, clean-cut face. “You don’t seem like the others. You don’t want to be like this… dangerous, criminal guy, right?”
Bobby throws the baseball into his glove then pulls it out and does it again. “There’s a part of me that still wants you to see me the way you used to. As someone normal. But when you were abducted by Parker, there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t have done to bring you back. It’s only because of the Baskerville twins that I didn’t kill every man that stood between me and you.”
He says it lightly, as though he might be joking, but his chocolate brown eyes are steady. A shiver goes down my spine. He’s so much stronger than I thought when he taught me math, but scarier too.
“So that’s the truth. Every man has a dark side. Maybe if I’d gone to UCLA, I wouldn’t have met mine, or lived in it as long as I have. But I’m not sorry. I’ve hurt men, I’ve ruined lives and I’ve killed, but I’ve also built a billion-dollar company with men I love, men who are closer to me than any blood brothers could be.”
“Even Doc?”
Bobby doesn’t smile. “Even Doc. It’s rare to meet people who are willing to sacrifice everything they have to keep a person safe, JJ. But I’ve found three. Until you, I’ve had few regrets.”
The morning seems to grow colder, the sky dimming though there are no clouds. I think about the bullet Bobby put in Kurt’s brain the night Velvet House abducted me. “Do you regret killing Kurt?”
